Structome analysis of Escherichia coli cells by serial ultrathin sectioning reveals the precise cell profiles and the ribosome density.

Structome analysis, the quantitative three-dimensional structural analysis of whole cells at the electron microscopic level, of Exophiala dermatitidis (black yeast), Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and Myojin spiral bacteria (MSB) have already been reported. Here, the results of the structome analysis of Escherichia coli cells based on transmission electron microscope observation of serial ultrathin sections was reported, and compared with the data obtained from phase contrast microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. On average, the cells had 0.89 μm in diameter, 2.47 μm in length and 1.16 fl (μm3) in cell volume in the structome analysis. Furthermore, E. coli cells had 26 100 ribosomes per whole cell with density of 2840 per 0.1 fl cytoplasm. The total ribosome number per cell was 15 times larger than that of MTB and about one-eighth of those of the yeast cells above. On the other hand, the ribosome density of E. coli cells are more than 13 times, 4 times, 2.5-times and 1.5-times higher than MSB, MTB, E. dermatitidis and S. cerevisiae, respectively. Finally, our ribosome enumeration data were compared between the structome-analyzed species and the relationship between the ribosome density and the growth rate among these species was discussed.